KEY POINTS:
Air New Zealand has postponed its bio-fuel test flight planned for Wednesday as a result of last week's fatal crash in France.
The flight is now due to go ahead in January, according to a written statement issued by the company this morning.
"The full efforts and resources of Air New Zealand will be focused over the coming days on providing support to the family members of the missing New Zealanders and to our people, and assisting in the investigation of the A320 accident in France," the statement said.
An Air New Zealand Airbus A320 crashed off southern France on Friday with the loss of seven lives, including five New Zealanders.
The bio-fuel flight was to be a world first in commercial aviation.
The two hour 747-400 flight from Auckland had planned to use a jatropha based fuel which has been certified by engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
Last month NZPA reported that the jatropha plant produces seeds that contain inedible lipid oil that is used to produce fuel.
Air New Zealand has sourced and refined the oil for its test flight from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and India.
It was sourced from seeds grown on environmentally sustainable farms.
Rolls-Royce fuel specialist Chris Lewis said the fuel was a 50:50 blend of standard Jet A1 fuel and synthetic paraffinic kerosene derived from jatropha oil.
A new date for the test flight will be set down later this week.
- NZHERALD STAFF
